WOW! THAT'S ALL I CAN SAY...

As I have said before, I am not good at expressing my feelings into words so I will try to sum it up best with a few (OK, more than a few) pictures. The love of my life, my best friend Jared...had slightly more of a plan than just dinner and a movie on my birthday...he and the world's (not just mine) greatest cousins got together and threw me an amazing surprise 30th birthday party. It could easily be compared to a small wedding (minus the dress and tuxedo). Not one little detail was forgotten or went by unnoticed or unappreciated. People in my life have spent hours upon hours doing everything for this night that I will never forget or ever be able to show my true gratitude or heartfelt feelings for. These crazy girls of mine have been planning this party in alignment with Randi's wedding (see post November 26th), my husband has spent many hours working on and stressing over the whole event, my dad spent 6 hours scanning photos for Jared, Anthony painted all the carriage center pieces to pink and black, Carlys who-knows-how-many hours she spent on my cakes (yes, cakes plural!), Regina making party favor labels, Mike shopping with Randi several times to the Coach store, Sydney and Savannah babysitting a house full of kiddos, Randi and Richelle with party assignments/plan document with every color coded detail, every friend who is now coming up to me saying how they almost slipped about the party (good work on keeping it a secret) etc. The list could go on forever but I will stop now and get on with the pictures. In no particular order...Me, awkwardly walking in as a room full of about 45 people sing "Happy Birthday" and shout "Surprise" to me The "crowning" moment of the night (Randi and Richelle got me a princess crown and beads to wear) My dear friend Jaime who let the party planners have it at her house even though she is due in 3 weeks Mr and Mrs Buvala (I can't even begin to say thanks for all the time, effort, stress, etc they have put into this) Anthony my man and all his spray painting efforts and watching the kids so Richelle can do her countless jobs for this My parents aka Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers aka the ones who put up with me for 30 years, yikes! The party favors for everyone The Jensens (Taryn, Bryant, Jacob, Lauren, Mom Jensen, Me and my Jared) My sweet Shelby who I have known forever and who also helped Jared find food places My own Princess Carriage Cake (which Emma has been bugging me all day to cut!) I am a good friend because I look stupid in this picture but my girls look fantastic! (Wendy aka gravy boat, Regina, birthday girl, Robyn aka Pepsi (dute dute), Richelle aka MOH1 and Randi aka hot bride) True excitement over the spa gift certificate for girls weekend this summer (this is Emma's favorite picture because I look like such a dork jumping in the air) Kara, me and my twinkie gangsta buddy Just a few of the desserts my cousins ordered from a bakery (I didn't realize until looking at this picture that there were cream puffs there, mini cheesecake bites, lemon squares, brownies and lots more) Have you ever wondered what "Sprinkles" cupcakes taste like that Oprah brags about sending to all her celeb friends?! Well, I wonder no more...Stefney got me some...mmmmm good! Jared and I downed them in about 3 minutes. Norm and Cara Germaine (love this family to pieces) me and Maggie and Andre Ethier Jared's long time friends (Brian, Matt, me, Kristi, Ben and Chaddy) A small sampling of the food Jared ordered from Garcias (the lady in the black made the amazing carriage cake) The Tomlinsons (when they walked in at 10pm a few people starting cheering and my cousin wondered what the big deal was about her well it is that she made it to the party because she is going to have her baby any minute This hot momma, Sara, just gave birth to twin boys a few weeks ago As if the carriage cake wasn't enough, my aunt also made me a red velvet cake with 30 candles on it for me to blow out (it only took me 4 breaths to do it, wow I have issues) The Grove 2nd ward girls (or at least the ones that could make it - a dozen or so went out the night before to celebrate my birthday and my twins momma Lisa's birthday) Jaime Votaw, Natalie Germaine, Lisa McBurney, me, Stefney Crawford and Denise Ecalono. (In the background of this picture you can see the slide show that Jared spent many hours working on.) My thoughts while this picture was being taken, "hmmm, which wallet do I use now, my American Eagle wallet or this Coach wallet from Randi and Richelle?" Yay, Coach wins! These are the pretty girls behind it all, Randi and Richelle Seeing as how this is my family journal I get to write on here whatever I want to write and because I was having fun talking to everyone last night I forgot to take pictures of all the little things I wanted to remember so here are a few just for my sake. It was a perfectly planned princess themed party, black and pink with carriages, tiaras and wands. I loved the toule on the tables, all the balloons (that Elias keeps running around and saying "cool") and the personal sized Martinelli bottles outside with the Pepsis (dute dute) and waters next to the lit fire place. I loved the that people could watch "Dark Knight" in the movie room and/or they could enjoy a slide show of my life through pictures and music that my husband spent many hours on (how come nobody ever pointed out my ugly eyebrows when I was in Jr High?!). I loved small details like cars parking on another street and all the kind people who walked to the house, the suburban full of kids and babysitters waiting around the corner for Randi and I to leave my house so they could all be dropped off at my house and grab my husband. I even get a good laugh now at Randi telling me she forgot to put on deodorant and how we had to go back to her house so she could put some on and how she almost forgot to put it on once we were there and Richelle calling with an excellent story about forgetting Derek's helmet at Jaime's house. I am amazed to find out that my aunt spent 3 days making my carriage cake, all the time put in to filling the candy jars and adding on the cute labels, all my friends and family who got babysitters so they could come out and celebrate with me, etc. I know this post doesn't do this party justice but I am so grateful for everything and seriously don't know what I have done to deserve such amazing cousins, friends, family and husband.
PS - Jared taped it for my sister Caryn so if you want to watch the video it is on the side under the video section.

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well I guess I am officially old now and so far so good. Here is the run down of my day with a few things that stuck out in my mind. Jared took the day off so he let me sleep in while he got up with Emma, did her hair, made her lunch, etc. Then when I rolled my fat butt out of bed at 9am he made me a smoothie and some blueberry muffins to eat while I opened up the worlds best card ever, homemade by Emma (it says "homemade by Emma" on the back of the card)! Then at 9:45am I ran 4 miles with my friend Denise. At about 11:30am my sweet friends Kristi and Denise showed up with Elmers (one of the best Mexican food places ever) and we ate some lunch and chatted for a bit. After they left I fed the babies, put all 3 boys down for a nap (Jared had to go to work for an hour so unfortunately I had to do some work, ha ha) and then when Jared came home we shut the phones all off and then we took a nap too! I have to say I am not usually a nap taker, I think it is a time waster but I really did enjoy my nap yesterday for an hour, mmmm naps. (am I truly old now if I loved my nap?!) I received several fun phone calls and text messages through out the day but 1 that surprised me was when Mike called and sang to me, I love my new neighbor. Then Jared's momcame over at 5pm and watched all 4 kiddos while Jared and I went out to celebrate. I set my expectations appropriately this year and just planned on going to chili's for dinner and stopping by and renting a movie cause Jared didn't plan anything. I realized oh about a year ago when we found out we were expecting twins that I wouldn't be going to New York for my 30th birthday so this year I just really wanted Jared to have a plan instead of driving around aimlessly. He sure did come through. Several months ago we went to go to dinner and I wanted to try a place called D'vine that Shelby recommended but somehow Jared drove me to TGI Fridays, a total disappointment, well...last night he surprised me and took me to D'vine and I was shocked and excited and impressed that he remembered. Afterwards we headed to the mall to grab a few Christmas things and then we did end up renting a movie but at least he planned on that because one of the things he had his mom get me for my birthday was a gift card to Hollywood video so...all in all in was a great night. Happy Birthday to me, I plan on rockin' it in my 30s and thanks for a fantastic well planned out day yesterday Jared!!

EMMA'S QUESTIONNAIRE!

I thought this was a fun idea from my friend so I asked Emma the same questions and here were her answers! It will be fun to keep and have forever: Emma's thoughts of me at age six!

1. What is something mom always says to you? Good girl
2. What makes mom happy? When somebody does something good
3. What makes mom sad? I don’t know its hard
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Sometimes when you say something wrong
5. What was your mom like as a child? A good kid, I don’t know
6. How old is your mom? 29 years old
7. How tall is your mom? I don’t know
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Go shopping with me and go to the mall, actually spend time with your family
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Take care of the kids
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Maybe cause you’re a famous singer
11. What is your mom really good at? Taking care of your children
12. What is your mom not very good at? Making me laugh
13. What does your mom do for her job? Take care of the kids
14. What is your mom's favorite food? Mashed potatoes?
15. What makes you proud of your mom? Because you take good care of me, Eli, Tyler and Tyson
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Wanda (from the fairly odd parents, cause I’m about safety she says)
17. What do you and your mom do together? Go shopping
18. How are you and your mom the same? We both like the color red
19. How are you and your mom different? You like to go on walks and I don’t
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because you take good care of me
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? He babysits
22. Where is your moms favorite place to go? To Randi’s house

MR & MRS MIKE BUVALA!

Ok so I am not very good at expressing my feelings/thoughts in words so I am going to let the pictures do the talking instead. But, I will just sum it up with...the weekend of November 8th was amazing. I loved hanging out with all my cousins, setting up, getting ready, feeding Randi the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples sauce, toast), doing flower arrangements, eating, dancing, looking totally hot (if I do say so myself, ha ha), seeing how breathtakingly beautiful my cousin was, etc. The only downside was that Mike and I never got our "food in our teeth" picture. In no particular order...cousins getting ready
Tyson and me
If a girl cop marries a boy cop, of course there has to be a gun on the garter belt
The photographer's niece asked, "is that girl a princess?"
Mr and Mrs Mike Buvala
MOH1, Bride, MOH2
Randi and Carol
My man Tyler
Funnest wedding picture ever
The happy couple
Only real brides drink Pepsi (dute-dute)
My other man, Jared, and me
Ok so I am not much of a crier but I did cry for the first time Friday morning when I found out that the wedding fairies got Randi the Photo Booth she had dreamed about having! Thanks wedding fairies...I had a blast in there :)
Nice tongue Jennifer :)
Last but not least...

A LITTLE SOMETHIN' ABOUT EVERYONE!

TWINS: Seriously, how do they sleep like this comfortably?! They aren't identical but every once and while they do the exact same thing and it makes me smile.
ELIAS was being very stealth-like and went into our room and climbed up onto our shoe rack and dropped all these shoes into the twins' playpen and the weird thing was, we could hear them all laughing. Look at Elias' face though, he is mad cause he is stuck! Muhahaha. Quick update on Elias and speaking: he is saying a few new words now, including "Emma" and he is mimicking words a lot more than he ever has and it actually sounds like the words! Yay Bubbas!
EMMA: Here is a conversation between Emma and me...needless to say, I am not the smartest person around.
Emma: "Mom, is watermelon a compound word?"
Mom: "What is a compound word?"
Emma: "2 words put together to make one word, like I know 'water' is a word but is 'melon'?"
Mom: "Yes, it is a compound word."
one more....
Emma: "Mom, does 'to' have one 'o' or two 'o's in it?"
Mom: "It depends on how you are using it and daddy always says I use it wrong so...call grandma and ask her."
I am definitely not smarter than a 1st grader.

OUR BRAVE LITTLE SOLIDER!

Today was the day we have been waiting for for a long time. Elias had his surgery to get tubes in his ears. Last night Grandma Jensen came and stayed the night so we could leave the other kiddos in bed while we took Eli to the hospital at 5am. After midnight he could no longer have food or liquids...what?! No bottle for Eli...are you freaking kidding me?! At 4:30am he woke up and Jared went in and layed him back down and a few minutes later he was up again so we brought him into our bed and played with him, he loved it! He didn't even ask for a bottle, yay! We headed out the door to the hospital and he was loving it, we got to the hospital and he was still loving it. We checked him in and turned on the laptop to watch Bugs Life while we waited for the next step. Shortly after getting the movie turned on they had us go upstairs to get situated for the surgery. Still no mention of the bottle, yay! Elias decided that the elevator was the coolest thing ever so we rode it up and down a few times while we waited for the next step. Then they called us back to get him changed into his hospital garb. We got him dressed, turned the movie back on and just snuggled with him on the bed, still no mention of the bottle...can I say yay again?! The anestheisologist came in and talked to us, the dr came and talked to us and a couple of different nurses came in and he was still so good. Somewhere during that time Eli started getting sleepy and fell asleep in my arms so we layed him down on the bed and kept our fingers crossed that he would stay asleep while they took him away and knocked him out.The nurse came in and took him and Elias wrapped his arms around him and layed his head on his shoulder (he must have thought it was his daddy). After they carried him away they took us to the waiting room where we sat for a whole 10 minutes before they came to take us to recovery. I could hear him crying on the other side of the walls so I rushed to be with him and hold him but he wanted nothing to do with me or Jared for that matter. 99% of kids coming out of anesthesia are combative and boy was Elias combative. If he had been any stronger, Jared, the nurse and I would be covered with black eyes and bruises from his flailing arms and kicking feet. Nothing would calm him down, not a sucker, not a bottle, not going outside... nothing. Finally Jared just strapped him in his carseat and about half way home he settled down. He was still wide awake and didn't go down for a nap until 11am. I look forward to him waking up and talking :) I mean, waking up and actually being able to hear us without it sounding like we are talking under water to him. Way to go buddy, you did such a good job today!!

HALLOWEEN!!

This year was a great Halloween. Kind of trippy though to realize that 1 year ago we went trick-or-treating with a 5 year old and a 1 year old and now this year we went with a 6 year old, a 2 year old and two 4 month olds! We were going to meet up with some friends for a BBQ and trick-or-treating but Jared was going to come late straight from work and I was going to get the kiddos ready and head over there with my food and what not. Just before 6pm when I realized there was no way I was going to be on time because all hell had broken lose in my house (every kid was crying and poor Emma was just trying to get her hair done and make-up done but alas she couldn't because she had to help with babies, bless her sweet heart) I called Denise to tell her we would be late and that I could bring my food by now so they could have it on time and she asked if we were ok and if she could help and I gave her the typical Carol answer, "no, we're good." After I hung up the phone I broke out into my typical Carol 2008 sweaty armpits and ran around the house trying to get ready and get out the door. As I was loading up the car while 2 kids were quiet for 2 seconds and Emma was feeding one of them my sweet friend Denise came and brought reinforcements. Her and her son showed up and grabbed babies, changed diapers, loaded up car seats, etc and we headed over to her house. When Jared showed up I told him what happened and started crying. You know it's funny...people make comments on here about how great I am, but I am really not. It's the people around me who make me this way. I have great support from my husband, my daughter and my friends. Thank you Denise for ignoring me and showing up and saving us, it meant more than you know.
Ok back to Halloween. So Emma was Princess Aurora again this year and had a great time but next year we will bring a water bottle so she wont complain of thirst on her journey for a bucket full of candy :) Elias was Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. - a costume which he picked out and totally surprised us all. We ordered him Lightning McQueen from Cars but he didn't want it so we borrowed 4 or 5 other ones from my friend and he picked that one, so random so cute though. The best part was him trying to eat a sucker while in the costume, he just couldnt quite get his arm to reach his mouth, HILARIOUS!! After about 3 houses we ditched the costume so he could keep up with the other kids. Every house we went to he would say, "um...um...um...un suck" (translation....um, I am going to pick the sucker in your bowl of candy). Emma ended up with about 100 pieces of candy and Elias had about 15 pieces. He didn't even care to get candy he was just having so much fun running up to each door he didn't really stick around for the treat once they opened the door. The twins had a glorious night as well. Being pushed around in a stroller outside with snuggly costumes on...I mean, does it get any better than that?! On Monday Emma made a haunted mansion and this is how I found Elias the next day...shhhh...dont tell Emma he ate it :)